Minnesota Orchestra music director and conductor Osmo Vanska resigned Tuesday, a year after management locked out its musicians in a contract dispute that has yet to be resolved.

“It is a very sad day for me,” Vanska said in a statement. “Over 10 years ago, I was honored to be invited to take up this position. I moved from Finland to the Twin Cities. At that time, I made clear my belief that the Minnesota Orchestra could become one of the very greatest international ensembles.”

Vanska, 60, fostered the orchestra to world-class status, garnering critics’ praise and earning the group Grammy nominations for its recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Sibelius’ Second and Fifth Symphonies.

The orchestra had planned performances of the Sibelius symphonies at New York’s Carnegie Hall in November. When the orchestra board canceled those concerts Monday, Vanska resigned.

Mary Ann Feldman, the orchestra’s retired historian, said she was surprised by Vanska’s departure.

“He’s not a matinee idol kind of conductor,” Feldman said. “He is respected for his depth and his intelligence. And it’s not all about him as a personality, it’s all about the music. I’m very sad to see him leave. He’ll be missed terribly.”

Vanska’s resignation already has led to more bad news for the orchestra. Hours after the news broke, the orchestra’s Pulitzer Prize-winning director of the Composer Institute announced he was leaving, as well.

“I have personally never seen two sides that show such unwillingness to sit down together and attempt to tackle the major challenges that confront the orchestra,” Jay Kernis wrote in a letter to the board and musicians. “I see no point in continuing my work there.”

A handful of musicians also have left during the lockout, leading to questions about what happens next.

An orchestra spokeswoman said that while no further talks are scheduled, the board and musicians need to continue talking “to reach a negotiated settlement that helps resolve the orchestra’s financial challenges. The board remains willing to meet and negotiate.”

In an April 30 letter to the orchestra board, Vanska threatened resignation if the contract dispute wasn’t resolved in time for the musicians to rehearse for the Carnegie Hall concerts.

It offered an annual salary of $104,500 over the life of a three-year contract, a revenue-sharing opportunity and a $20,000 signing bonus for each musician, made possible through one-time special funding from Minnesota foundations and community support entities.

Vanska’s statement did not mention the contract dispute but praised “the skill, hard work and commitment of this wonderful group of players and … the valued support of the board of directors, management and administration team, volunteers, as well as our exceptional community.”

A London-based spokeswoman for Vanska said the conductor would not comment further at this time.

Michael Henson, the orchestra’s president and chief executive, said Tuesday that it is too soon to focus on replacing Vanska. “Today is a day to acknowledge the extraordinary tenure of Osmo Vanska and thank him for his excellent accomplishments,” he said.

Vanska joined the orchestra in 2003 as its 10th music director. He quickly established himself as an exacting conductor with an eye toward raising the orchestra’s international profile.

In 2003, he told the Pioneer Press that a conductor’s duty is “to find out all the wrong things. One of the great demands of this job is to know why something is wrong, and then know how to correct (it.)”

Under his leadership, the Minnesota Orchestra toured Europe four times, earning raves at each stop.

In 2010, the orchestra played Carnegie Hall, prompting New Yorker magazine classical music writer Alex Ross to proclaim it “a performance of uncanny, wrenching power, the kind you hear once or twice a decade. … For the duration of the evening of March 1, the Minnesota Orchestra sounded, to my ears, like the greatest orchestra in the world.”

In a post Tuesday to his blog, Ross reiterated that the 2010 concert was one of “the most remarkable orchestral performances I’ve ever heard. … That the Minnesota Orchestra Association has allowed this conductor to depart strikes me as management failure of historic proportions.”

Both sides of the dispute issued statements about Vanska’s departure.

The “deeply saddened” musicians said they “enjoyed a truly rare chemistry with him and are deeply grateful to (Vanska) for imparting his passionate vision, exacting discipline and the resulting confidence that came from being at the top of our game.”

Orchestra board chairman Jon Campbell said management hoped Vanska would help see the orchestra through the contract dispute.

“Vanska has been an extraordinary conductor, and we are profoundly thankful for his service,” Campbell said. “He will hold a distinguished legacy in the history of the Minnesota Orchestra.”

Campbell placed the blame for the Carnegie Hall cancellation on the musicians.

“The board has done everything in its power to reach a compromise with musicians … and we are very sorry they have rejected all efforts,” he said.

Speaking for the musicians, clarinetist Tim Zavadil said it was management’s choice to lock out the musicians for a year, to undergo a $50 million Orchestra Hall renovation and to cancel the Carnegie Hall concerts.

A Minnesota native, Ross Raihala joined the Pioneer Press as pop music critic in 2004, after stints at The Forum in Fargo, N.D., and The Olympian in Olympia, Wash. He covers local and national music as well as some theater and other arts and entertainment topics. His favorite part of his job is reviewing, and live tweeting, Twin Cities arena concerts. And, yes, he saw the same show you did.

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